'I earn a five figure sum while still doing an accountancy day job': Discover the write stuff to be an ebook millionaire

Everyone has a book in them and thanks to the internet, yours could be an ebook that ends up making you a millionaire bestselling author.

The internet has the advantage that you do not need a book deal to write that great first novel. Nor do you have to pay for vanity publishing – where you stump up the cash for someone else to publish your book.

And if you hit the mark with readers – as EL James did with the erotic thriller Fifty Shades Of Grey – then your ebook can snowball into a multi-million pound bestselling franchise.

Fifty shades, forty winks: Andy Leeks, with wife Emma and daughters Charlotte and Sophie, wrote the ebook As They Slept

Since it was first published online three years ago, Fifty Shades has been turned into a trilogy with book sales and a host of spin-offs making the author £33million last year – about £90,000 a day.

The book is now being turned into a Hollywood film directed by English filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood and will be released in February next year.

Andy Leeks, 34, from Headcorn in Kent, has already sold more than 40,000 ebooks – and in the process become an Amazon Top 100 bestseller – earning ‘a five figure sum’ while still doing an accountancy day job.

Andy, married to Emma, 36, with whom he has two daughters Charlotte, four, and nine-month-old Sophie, has found writing can be fun as well as lucrative as the author of As They Slept: The Comical Tales Of A London Commuter, which he wrote last year.

Success: As They Slept has become an Amazon Top 100 bestseller

He says: ‘I was just sitting on the train going to work one day and I looked around – everyone else was fast asleep. It seemed an incredible waste of good time so there and then I decided to start writing about commuter experiences.

'It was easy to publish as an ebook and fortunately many readers seemed to like it and before long I was selling 500 copies a day with lots of people downloading it on to tablets and book reading devices such as the Kindle.’

Turning pen to paper – and then a downloadable book – can be done through an online store such as Amazon by clicking on the ‘Independently Publish with Us’ link and agreeing to sign up to Kindle Direct Publishing.

You get 70 per cent royalties – most of the sale price – if you decide to sell between £1.49 and £7.81. Outside these price ranges, royalties are paid at 35 per cent. The ebook also has a delivery fee depending on file size for 70 per cent royalty deals that is typically 5p a download.

A printed book might provide you with royalties of only 10 per cent of the purchase price if you are one of the few to find a publisher.

Uploading the book is simple. Writers just have to provide a cover design and put the book in a downloadable format, such as in Word or PDF form. It can then be read on a Kindle, tablets such as an iPad, and on most smartphones if you download the Kindle app.

You may struggle with competitors’ book readers such as the NOOK or Kobo, but if you download the Kindle app you should hopefully be able to use them.

Although Amazon is the biggest online publisher others work much the same way. For example Kobo publishes for free in an ePub format though a ‘Writing Life’ connection to its website. Kobo books can also be read on a variety of devices. It pays 70 per cent royalties on ebooks selling for between £1.99 and £7.99 and if you decide to charge less or more the royalty falls to 45 per cent.

As with Amazon, Kobo takes the rest of the money as its cut for offering a ‘free’ ebook service.
Andy adds: ‘Writing the book was just the start – I also had to market it to ensure potential readers knew it even existed.

‘I handed out leaflets on the train and asked if people might be interested in downloading the book. By not being greedy and initially charging £1.99 – then temporarily dropping it to just 77p – the ball started rolling with sales. Word of mouth and people using social media such as Facebook and Twitter also helped spread the word.’

Last year ebook sales rose 20 per cent on 2012 and now account for one in every four book sales. Readers also spent £300million on 80million ebooks in Britain with one in five being self-published titles, according to market researcher Nielsen.

Damien Fahy, who runs money saving website MoneytotheMasses and is author of ebook 30 Day Money Plan, says: ‘Social media can be a powerful marketing tool and really help push up sales but there is still room for old-fashioned marketing such as holding a large book launch party. It might also be worth offering a free copy of the book before launch for an honest review on Amazon – positive reviews will help to sell the book.’

Although costs are relatively small Fahy advises budgeting at least £300 for help with art work for the cover. Also consider paying someone to professionally edit your copy. He also suggests setting up a Facebook page as a forum for sharing thoughts on the novel.

Providing updates may also get people returning to the site while ‘special offer’ discounts often boost sales.

John Lewis, data editor for book industry magazine The Bookseller, points out that although ebook sales have rocketed in recent years the market is still in its infancy, yet it offers a great opening for self-publishing.

Lewis warns: ‘The ebook is being used by a lot of publishers for debut authors as it involves little or no financial risk. But in some instances books are selling for as little as 20p or even being given away and people downloading them are not bothering to read them. It is not the same with paper novels which offer a clearer guide to what books are being read.’

Tips to make it fly off the e-shelves

Writing a book – hardback or ebook – requires a lot of commitment. Here are some tips to improve your chances of success.

Don’t
just talk about it – get on with the writing. Book writing requires
discipline and time should be set aside almost daily. It will be hard
work and you should expect to churn out failures and do many re-writes.
Do not publish until the book is in a shape of which you are proud.
Think about genres – chick-lit and sci-fi are popular.

Judge
the book by its cover – others will. Take time over it and consider
paying for expert advice and getting help from computer-savvy friends to
get an image and title to capture the eye and imagination. Then give it
a catchy ‘blurb’. This is a short, sharp sales pitch to grab attention
that is key to promotion. The book should also be professionally edited.

Market
yourself. It does not matter how great that novel is – no one will buy
it unless they are aware it exists. Word of mouth, online forums, launch
parties, local media and book shop promotions are the way forward. This
should be supported with your own social networking website. Do not be
shy.

Make
sales not money. Don’t be in a rush to become a multi-millionaire.
Keeping the price low boosts sales. For a first time self-publisher 75p
is at least going to help you shift books off the e-shelf. You must find
readers first before making money.